Develop Bot Application Using Visual Studio Mac

The bot application gets created with all the components and all required NuGet references installed.

Update the code

The default application adds a simple code snippet and we have no need to change anything. If you want to test your custom message, you can change it like below.

You can find the messagereceiveAsync method from the Dialogs/RootDialog.cs file. In this method, the activity.Text container will return the user text input so that you can reply to a message based on the input text.

private async Task MessageReceivedAsync(IDialogContext context, IAwaitable<object> result) 
{    
    var activity = await result as Activity;    

    // Calculate something for us to return     
    int length = (activity.Text ?? string.Empty).Length;    

    // Return our reply to the user     
    // Test     
    if (activity.Text.Contains("technology")) 
    {     
        await context.PostAsync("Refer C# corner website for technology http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/");     
    } 
    else if (activity.Text.Contains("morning")) 
    {     
        await context.PostAsync("Hello !! Good Morning, Have a nice Day");     
    }     
    // Test     
    else if (activity.Text.Contains("night")) 
    {     
        await context.PostAsync("Good night and Sweetest Dreams with Bot Application");     
    } 
    else if (activity.Text.Contains("date")) 
    {     
        await context.PostAsync(DateTime.Now.ToString());     
    } 
    else 
    {     
        await context.PostAsync($"You sent {activity.Text} which was {length} characters");     
    }     

    Wait(MessageReceivedAsync);     
}

Run Bot Application

The emulator is a desktop application that lets you test and debug your bot on localhost or remotely. Now, you can click on "Run the application" in any browser.

Install Bot Emulator

If you have not installed the Bot Emulator on Mac, you need to download and install the emulator to test the bot application. You can download the Bot Emulator from - https://goo.gl/kZkoJT

Follow the below steps to test your bot application on Mac.

1. Open Bot Emulator.
2. Click "New Bot Configuration".
3. Copy the above localhost URL and paste it into the emulator. For example - http://127.0.0.1:3978
4. You can append the /api/message in the above URL; e.g. - http://127.0.0.1:3978/api/messages.
5. You won't need to specify the MSA ID and MSA password for localhost testing. So, click on "Save and Connect".
   

You can send a message to the bot application. The bot will reply as per your guide/code.

Summary

In this article, you learned how to create a bot application using Visual Studio for Mac. If you have any questions, feedback, or issues, please write in the comment box.